Connecticut western news., 1887-08-31
THE COST OF WAR.
Scenes in Our Civil War and
 Other Wars Compared.
The Losses at Shiloh Much
 Greater Than at Waterloo.

A Washington correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette has been comparing the statistics of the loss by death of Union soldiers during the Re bellion, with the mortality of other wars. Reports show that the northern and southern armies met in more than 2,O00 skirmishes and battles. ,. In 14S of these. conflicts the loss on the Federal side was more than 800 men, and in at least ten battles more than 10, 900 men were re- ported lost on each side. The appended table shows that the combined losses of the Federal and Confederate forces, in killed, wounded and missing, in the fol- lowing engagements, were: Shiloh, a. 900; Antietam, 3s,00O; Stone river, 37, 900; Charlottesville, 28, 900; Gettys- burg, 54, 900; Chickam .uga, B, 900; McClellan's peninsular campaign, 1so, 900, and sherman's campaign, 5000. Waterloo was one of the most desperate and bloody fields chronicled in European history, and yet Wellington's casualties were less than 12 per cent, his losses be- ing 2, 432 killed, and 95s wounded out of over 100, 900 men, while at Shiloh one side lost in killed and wounded 9,740 out of 34 900, while their opponents report their killed and wounded at 9,616, making the. casualties about 30 per cent At the great battle of Wagram Napoleon lost but about 5 per cent At Wurzburg the French lost but 1-2 per cent, and yet the army gave up the field and retreated to the Rhine. At Racour, Marshal Sake lost but 2 1-2 per cent. At Zurich, Massena lost but 8 per cent. At Lagriz, Frederick lost but 1-2 per cent. At Malplaquet, Marlboro lost but 10 per cent, and at Families the same intrepid commander lost but per cent. At Contras, Henry of Navarro was re- ported as cut to pieces, yet his loss was less than 10 per cent. At Lodi, Napoleon lost 1 IA per cent. At Valmy, Freder- ick William lost but 3 per cent, and at the great battles of Marengo and Aus terlitz, sanguniary as they were, Napo- leon lost an average of less than IA 12 per cent. At Magenta and Solferino, in 1859, the average loss of both armies was less than 9-per cent. At Konigrutf, in 1866, it was 6 per cent. At Woerth, Specheran, Mars le Tour, Gravelotte and Sedan, in 1870, the average loss was 12 per cent, while at Linden General Moreau lost but per cent. ill killed and wounded. Americans would scarcely call this lively skirmish. At Perry vile, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, At lanta, Gettysburg, Mission Ridge, the Wilderness and Spottsylvania, the loss frequently reached, and sometimes ex- ceeded, 40 per cent. Official statistics show that of the 5000, 900 men enlisted, there were killed in battle, A, 23s; died of wounds. 49, 2O5: died of disease, 186, 2I6; died of un- known causes, 34, 1S4; total, 303, 843. This includes only those whose death while in the army had been actually proved. To this number should be add ed, first, 26, 900 men who are known to have died while in the hands of the ene- my as prisoners of war, and many others in the same manner whose deaths arc un- recorded; second, a fair percentage of the 2O5, 794 men who are put down on the official reports as deserters and miss ing in action, for those who participated in the war know that men frequently disappear, who, it was certain had not deserted, yet could not be otherwise officially accounted for; third, thousands who are buried in private cemeteries all over the north who died while home on furlough The nations dead are buried in 73 national cemeteries, of which only 12 are in the Northern States. The proportion of death from all causes in the troops of each state was as follows: Maine, 1 in q; New Hamp- shire, in z; Vermont, 1 in 6; Massa- chusetts, in g.; Rhode Island, in ii Connecticut, in 10; New York, in 1s New Jersey, in 12; Pennsylvania i in 12; Delaware, in 20; Maryland, in %; Ohio, i in 9; Indiana, 1 in 8; Hi nois, 1 in 7; Michigan, in 6; Wisconsin, 1 in :; Minnesota, 1 in g.; Iowa, in i (nearly 8; Kansas, i in 5; California, 1 
 in 20; West Virginia, i in 9; Kentucky, 1 in 19; Missouri, in 9.